Bank of England Statistical Interactive Database: rates, lending and money

The Bank of England Statistical Interactive Database is the Bank's free online store of monetary and financial statistics, including the full history of Bank Rate, household interest rates, lending, mortgage approvals and the money supply. Every series has a stable code that can be downloaded as CSV, Excel or XML. Fact-checkers use it to test claims about interest rates, mortgage costs, borrowing and the Bank's inflation remit.

Covers: UK · Release calendar

What it publishes

Official Bank Rate on every date it changed, as a daily series (code IUDBEDR) and a month-end series (IUMBEDR), with a simple history table on the Bank Rate page.
Average quoted household interest rates: advertised rates on fixed and variable mortgages, personal loans and savings, weighted by lenders' business volumes (Bankstats table G1.3).
Effective interest rates: the rates actually paid or received on new lending and on the whole stock of loans and deposits, compiled from banks' monthly returns (table G1.4).
Mortgage approvals for house purchase and for remortgaging, net mortgage lending, consumer credit and credit card borrowing, published monthly in the Money and Credit release.
Broad money measures including M4 and M4ex (M4 excluding intermediate other financial corporations), with levels, flows and 12-month growth rates, plus notes and coin.
Lending to businesses, sectoral deposits, banks' balance sheets, capital issuance and daily spot exchange rates against sterling.
Explanatory notes for every data family describing definitions, coverage, breaks in series and revisions.
Alongside the database, the Bank's website publishes the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decision dates, minutes, voting history and the Governor's letters to the Chancellor when inflation misses the 2% target by more than 1 percentage point.

Key datasets

Official Bank Rate history
Every change in Bank Rate with the date it took effect and an export option. On 13 October 2026 the page showed Bank Rate at 3.75%, the level set on 18 December 2025.
Updated: Updated when the MPC changes the rate
Quoted household interest rates
Charts and links for advertised mortgage, loan and savings rates. Useful codes include IUMBV34 (2-year fixed, 75% LTV), IUMZICR (2-year fixed, 85% LTV), IUMBV42 (5-year fixed, 75% LTV) and IUMTLMV (revert-to rate). Monthly, not seasonally adjusted.
Updated: Monthly, on the 5th working day of the following month
Effective interest rates
Rates actually charged and paid by UK banks. CFMZ6JM is the effective rate on new mortgage advances to individuals; CFMZ6K6 covers the whole stock of loans secured on dwellings; CFMZ6JX and CFMZ6K3 split new fixed-rate deals by length.
Updated: Monthly
Money and Credit statistics
Visual summary of the monthly Money and Credit release covering broad money, lending to individuals and lending to businesses, with links to each series in the database.
Updated: Monthly, around the end of the following month
Mortgage approvals and household credit
Seasonally adjusted counts of approvals for house purchase (LPMVTVX) and remortgaging (LPMB4B3), net secured lending (LPMVTVJ), and consumer credit growth (LPMB4TC), for the UK.
Updated: Monthly
M4 and M4ex money supply notes
Definitions and coverage of M4ex, the Bank's preferred broad money measure. M4 levels are in LPMAUYN and M4 12-month growth in LPMVQJW; RPMB56Q is the 12-month growth rate of M4 excluding intermediate OFCs.
Updated: Monthly
MPC dates for 2026 and 2027
Confirmed dates for each Bank Rate announcement, the minutes and the quarterly Monetary Policy Report. The page lists the next decision as 5 November 2026.
Updated: Eight announcements a year
MPC voting history
Excel record of how each MPC member voted at each meeting, useful for claims about split decisions or who voted for a cut or rise.
Updated: After each MPC decision
Inflation and the 2% target
Explains the Government-set 2% CPI inflation target and the open-letter rule when inflation is more than 1 percentage point away from it, with links to the published letters.
Updated: Updated with each CPI release and letter
Bankstats tables
The Bank's Monetary and Financial Statistics tables (Bankstats), organised by table number such as G1.3 for quoted rates and G1.4 for effective rates, each linking to the underlying series.
Updated: Monthly and quarterly

APIs and downloads

CSV download by series code
Documented URL pattern returning CSV with no key. Datefrom and Dateto take DD/Mon/YYYY or 'now'; SeriesCodes takes up to 300 comma-separated codes; CSVF is TT or TN (tabular with or without titles) or CT or CN (columnar). VPD=Y includes provisional data. The server may refuse requests that look automated without a browser-like user agent.
Excel and XML downloads
The help page documents the same parameters for Excel (excel97.x=yes) and XML (CodeVer=new&xml.x=yes) downloads, explains series codes, and describes a subscription to XML change notifications.
Database home and search
Browse by topic, table, sector or A to Z, or search titles and codes (wildcards and Boolean operators supported). Selected series can be charted or downloaded in CSV, Excel, HTML or XML.
Statistics RSS feed
RSS feed announcing new statistical releases, including Money and Credit and Effective interest rates. No key needed.
Yield curves
Downloadable spreadsheets of UK nominal, real and inflation yield curves, updated on the following working day.

When it publishes

The database aims to be updated by 10am; daily rates appear one to two working days after the date they relate to. Money and Credit is published monthly towards the end of the following month (the release after August 2026 data is due on 29 October 2026). Quoted household rates appear on the 5th working day of the following month. MPC decisions are announced on eight pre-set Thursdays a year, with the decision taken at the meeting ending the day before and the minutes published with the announcement.

How to use it to check a claim

For claims about the level of interest rates, confirm the date: use the Bank Rate history page or the daily series IUDBEDR, and quote the date the rate was set as well as the level.
For 'mortgage rates have fallen or risen' claims, decide which measure the claim describes. Quoted rates (for example IUMBV34) show advertised deals for new borrowers; effective rates on new advances (CFMZ6JM) show what new borrowers actually paid; the stock rate (CFMZ6K6) shows what all mortgage holders pay on average.
Check the loan-to-value band and fixation length behind a quoted rate, because 2-year and 5-year fixes at 60%, 75% or 85% LTV can move differently.
For housing market claims, use mortgage approvals for house purchase (LPMVTVX) rather than total approvals, and compare like with like on a seasonally adjusted basis.
For money supply claims, note whether the figure is M4 or M4ex and whether it is a level, a monthly flow or a 12-month growth rate.
Cite the series code, the series title as shown in the database, and the date you downloaded it, because recent months can be revised.
For claims about why the Bank changed or held rates, read the Monetary Policy Summary and minutes for that meeting and the voting record, rather than inferring reasons from the rate alone.

Common mistakes

Bank Rate is the rate the Bank pays on reserves; it is not the rate households pay, and lenders' mortgage and savings rates respond to it unevenly and with lags.
Quoted rates are averages of advertised rates for new products, while effective rates cover all business actually written or outstanding, so the two can differ noticeably.
Many interest rate series are not seasonally adjusted, while lending and approvals series are usually seasonally adjusted; mixing the two can create apparent jumps.
Mortgage approvals count loans approved by lenders before a purchase completes, so they lead and differ from HM Land Registry or HMRC counts of completed property transactions.
The 2% inflation target applies to CPI, not RPI or CPIH, and it is set by the Government, not chosen by the Bank.
Series can have breaks, for example quoted rates moved to a whole-market basis from February 2019, so long comparisons should check the explanatory notes.

Where can I find the history of the Bank of England base rate?

The Official Bank Rate history page in the Bank's database lists every change with its date and lets you export the data. For analysis, download series IUDBEDR (daily) or IUMBEDR (end of month) as CSV. 'Base rate' is a common name for Bank Rate. The MPC dates page shows when the next decision is due.

What is the difference between quoted and effective mortgage rates?

Quoted rates are averages of advertised rates for specific products, such as a 2-year fix at 75% loan to value, weighted by lenders' market share. Effective rates are calculated from what banks actually charge across their lending, either on new advances or on all outstanding mortgages. The Bank's statistics FAQs explain that coverage, sources and method differ, so the two rarely match.

How do I download Bank of England data as CSV?

Select series in the database and choose CSV, or build a URL using the documented pattern: the _iadb-fromshowcolumns.asp address with csv.x=yes, Datefrom, Dateto, SeriesCodes, CSVF and UsingCodes=Y. Up to 300 series codes can be requested at once. No registration or API key is needed, and the Help page lists every parameter.

What happens if inflation misses the 2% target?

If CPI inflation is more than 1 percentage point above or below the 2% target, the Governor writes an open letter to the Chancellor explaining why and what the MPC plans to do. The Bank publishes these letters, and the MPC minutes note when an exchange of letters has been triggered.

Questions answered using this source

Links checked 2026-10-13. This page describes what the source publishes and gives no verdict on any claim.